Questions tagged [mistakes]
For questions involving mistakes that happen at the workplace, and to deal with the fallout or to recover from them.
92 questions
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4
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316
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How to avoid making errors in a research position [closed]
I've been hired recently to perform calculations for a new device's feasibility, to judge whether or not to proceed with the project. The calculations are pretty involved, with lots of simulations, ...
- 99
1
vote
4
answers
846
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What to do when you introduced breaking changes in a rest api, consequences were real and you found out about it after the fact?
I’m an external IT Consultant (a Java developer) working for a state-owned agency (the client) that deals with monthly payments (f.e. allowances, pensions etc). My team doesn’t maintain systems that ...
- 21
1
vote
1
answer
1k
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I had a misunderstanding with my boss
Since my schedule the past two years hasn't been the ideal, I've only worked three hours on Sundays. However, recently, I asked for additional hours, and they offered me more. Then, last week, I had a ...
- 29
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votes
3
answers
586
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Should I point out a mistake in recruiter's LinkedIn headline?
A recruiter I'm corresponding with has a grammar mistake in their LinkedIn headline. When I speak to them about potential roles should I point this out? Of course, as tactfully as possible.
On the one ...
- 95
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votes
2
answers
485
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Is this gross misconduct?
I left a role in 2017 but due to a resignation before I left I asked the director if I can put it down as a contract. He said I could as I was advised by a career advisor.
I am based in a country ...
- 17
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votes
2
answers
761
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Costly mistake at work [closed]
Ugh.
So I recently started this new job I love, and it's the first time I'm in charge of actual money for any company.
Well, I went away on time off, and when I returned, I realized I had forgotten to ...
25
votes
4
answers
10k
views
Depression and on final warning for tardiness
Over the last few months, I've been getting more and more depressed, and this has been feeding into me getting later and later everyday, and this culminated in me getting the final warning of all time....
user137578
43
votes
13
answers
20k
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Accidentally spent much more than the food allowance on a business trip
I just got back from a week-long business trip with my company. This is the first time I've traveled with my current company.
On our trip, we had a $300/day meal allowance that we would charge on the ...
-4
votes
1
answer
720
views
Made a stupid mistake at work, how can I improve?
I'm an SDE 2 (little more than 4 yoe) at a FAANG company and recently I merged a pull request (with approval) to prod. It was a very small change that called a data store. The underlying package that ...
- 207
8
votes
3
answers
8k
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Fired from software engineer role at FAANG for poor performance: What to put on Resume? [closed]
UPDATE: I refocused this question to honor the answers that those contributors like Flater put a lot of of effort into. However, I tried not to materially change too much as that can make reading the ...
6
votes
2
answers
2k
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Potential miscommunication by recruiter cost me the job? What are my options?
I have a potential case of miscommunication by a recruiter which may have cost me my job offer. Though it also may be in part due to my stance.
I applied for a job at a much larger company at x salary ...
- 69
110
votes
11
answers
21k
views
Made a bad code change that introduced a bug into our system. How do I rebound?
I made a code change (pull request (PR)) about six months ago that introduced a bug into our system. It ended up really causing a lot of issues and just recently it was brought to my attention. I ...
- 821
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votes
1
answer
815
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Accidentally used the word “f’ed” in an email to customer [closed]
I work as a programmer in a company and we process multiple documents on daily basis.
I was working on one such document and had to reject it since the due date was in past. In my head i was saying “...
- 17
52
votes
15
answers
14k
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Could producing a grave bug that made headlines make you unemployable? [closed]
Does producing such a grave bug like Log4Shell make you effectively unemployable?
The people involved have committed under their real names and, taking into account how prominent the bug is, it's easy ...
- 2,612
10
votes
6
answers
3k
views
Coworker made a big mistake with no bad consequences should I tell the boss?
A coworker accidently threw away a check from a customer of pretty significant value ~$10,000 and I was able to find it in trash before they took it out.
I think it was accidental and no malicious ...
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24
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5
answers
11k
views
How do you get over feeling like you're constantly making mistakes?
I graduated college in December and in March I was hired for my first professional job, as a Project Coordinator at a company that builds commercial kitchens in Arizona. By all accounts, I'm doing ...
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21
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5
answers
8k
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I accidentally told an offensive joke at my boss's expense in a team meeting, how do I apologise?
During a recent Zoom team meeting, we were playing a team bonding game where everyone would share a picture of themselves re-creating a favourite movie scene. Everyone was having a good natured laugh.
...
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138
votes
8
answers
24k
views
How do I tell my boss I've accidentally been working halftime on the wrong project for the past year?
I am a QA tester, and started with my company almost a year ago.
On my second day, I got invited to a meeting to discuss a project (let's call it Project A) that was just getting started. I am the ...
- 781
29
votes
5
answers
22k
views
I made mistakes during a project, which has resulted in the client denying payment to my company
To give some background, I have been working in India for a company for the past four and a half years, mainly in core development (Java, JSP, and C#). At the start of 2020, I was assigned to a ...
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1
answer
331
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Should I leave my current job?
I make a minor mistake, something very minuscule, a few times a day like a typo/template error etc. However, every few weeks or so, I make a mistake where my boss may need to confront me after ...
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1
answer
380
views
Is it common to make mistakes often at work?
I’ve been at my current job for almost two years. And it’s my first time in the field, while I have a general understanding of what the job entails, things happen and some things can fall through the ...
- 21
63
votes
9
answers
21k
views
How to professionally acknowledge to a client that a former coworker made a mistake in production?
I work at a tech consulting company in the US and I recently took over a project from a coworker (Bob) who got laid off. (He was mainly let go because of covid, but he wasn't the easiest to work with ...
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3
votes
1
answer
2k
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Concerned about not seeing my programming language in my new job
So I started a new job and so far I am seeing Java programming for developing REST APIs, but I haven't seen any JavaScript yet, which is what I was hired for.
I looked at the initial email I got from ...
- 1,563
6
votes
3
answers
714
views
I am the sole statistician in my group, and I am scared of making mistakes
I am fresh grad statistician and I am working in the agronomy industry (first time working with this kind of data), I am doing the best the best in my knowledge to produce analysis within the given ...
77
votes
9
answers
25k
views
I've not performed well in my first year as technical director. What should I do next?
Summary: I've been the technical director of a project. It finished well, but I made some mistakes that I don't know I can fix easily. This also ruined my manager's trust in me. Should I go back to a ...
- 649
3
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Made a mistake at work. Proper tools can prevent it again but there is some obstruction
So I made a mistake at work not being thorough enough. It's my fault and I accept it.
Where I'm taking offence is that this mistake could have been preventing with basic tooling. And by basic I mean ...
- 6,011
1
vote
2
answers
684
views
Ignoring a joke taken wrongly
Recently I was around a couple co-workers and made a joke. They took it as a joke, but took it as it having a sexual angle which I didn't mean at all. In fact, in my mind it was a huge stretch to take ...
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42
votes
12
answers
15k
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How should I handle multiple mistakes without losing credibility?
In short: I've made multiple mistakes in a calculation software within a year. These mistakes caused no harm whatsoever, but I'm afraid that I will lose credibility if I approach this the wrong way. I ...
- 457
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1
answer
447
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Interviewer wrongly called and accepted me, then really accepted me
I am a backend developer with good history, knowing little about front-end. In previous weeks I wanted to switch my job. I took 3 days off, and arranged 5 or 6 interviews in those days. Interviews ...
5
votes
6
answers
1k
views
Dropping out from an interview for a job you don't want
Once upon a time, a temp agency sent me on a job interview. There was a miscommunication (perhaps a mental glitch on my part) about the nature of the client's business.
As soon as I became aware of ...
- 159
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votes
4
answers
2k
views
Lied on my resume about some dates and don't know how to fix it [closed]
I have been working at a new job for a couple days now but I got an email about a blip in my screening. they are asking for proof I worked a certain time at my old job. I wrote on my resume that I ...
- 21
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3
answers
2k
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How to navigate an embarrassing mistake I created and recover?
asking for a friend
As part of a small project I wrote some code some months ago.
The code passed my tests, code review, UAT by business analysts and everything was fine. When the time came for me ...
- 19.3k
11
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Colleague cannot put down her phone... even while teaching!
A colleague cannot put down her phone, not for a moment. She's a lecturer in English. Today I came into one of her classes, and she was holding her phone in front of her face with one hand while ...
user106815
8
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Should I alert my previous employer to errors I made during an internship?
I finished my very first proper internship at an engineering company (HVAC industry) a couple of months ago. I worked in sales support for the sales engineers and filled out project equipment ...
3
votes
4
answers
698
views
Should I reveal my mistake after project delivery? [duplicate]
I was working on a project, as assigned by my manager. It was completed, reviewed and delivered, and is now under maintenance. While I was searching through code (for a different purpose) I realized ...
35
votes
8
answers
11k
views
How can I regain a professional atmosphere with someone who may have seen me misbehave? [closed]
I believe a female colleague saw me masturbating at work. I was in my office after hours with the door locked and blinds down, but I'm afraid the blinds had a crack. I am not an exhibitionist, and ...
- 350
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votes
3
answers
1k
views
Bonus error in my favor [closed]
I'm working in Europe for a big multinational company. I was promoted last year, with an increase on my base salary and bonus.
I recently received my bonus for last year. However my company just told ...
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4
votes
6
answers
2k
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Self-employed and messed up a client's brochure, should I still bill them?
I have been self-employed for 2 years and most of my work is in web development/general IT. I mostly work for small businesses and sometimes they need extra things like graphic design. Often my ...
- 151
6
votes
5
answers
1k
views
Should I make it up to my manager for making him buy something I didn't need?
I just started a new job and asked my boss to order me a USB hub about a week ago (they will order stuff you need for work). A couple days later I discovered that the monitors have built in USB plugs. ...
- 303
3
votes
2
answers
261
views
How to cope with and mitigate contractor screwups? [closed]
I sometimes manage construction projects and one of the big ongoing problems is how to deal with a mistake by a contractor or subcontractor.
For example, in one case I had a piece of equipment ...
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6
votes
6
answers
1k
views
Should I own up my own mistake in public?
I am working as a software qualify assurance engineer and partially due to my work, a bug managed to get to our production code.
Our customer service team has reported back this issue to us on Slack.
...
- 171
4
votes
6
answers
1k
views
Is a coworker rightfully annoyed by my typo?
I recently got chastised in an e-mail because I pasted the wrong number. She asked me for the ID number of a test run that I submitted to a server. To view details about a test run, you have to run a ...
- 367
2
votes
2
answers
1k
views
How do I make amends and go about apologizing to former manager(s) after being dismissed for gross misconduct?
I was fired for gross misconduct , and want to apologize to my former mangers as I didn't see them at all during my last days at the company. Should i ring/message them to ask to meet face to face to ...
- 665
12
votes
6
answers
6k
views
Am I being overly critical and unfair to my coworker or is she being entitled?
About a year ago my boss was fired, and I was put in his place as a new manager. Our team was already understaffed, so I ended up doing several jobs, including team lead, project lead and PM for a big ...
- 165
5
votes
2
answers
902
views
Made a mistake that really annoyed a coworker. Should I attempt to explain myself or just leave it be?
I had an issue that I needed a DBA's help with. I went to my go-to DBA (DBA#1), since he's usually been friendly and receptive to my questions. He gave me his recommendation, and I logged a ticket for ...
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votes
2
answers
705
views
How to overcome lunch-break embarrassing incident? [closed]
I was sitting on a table in the lunch room when I started coughing, which to my utter embarrassment resulted in a disgusting sound. Unfortunately, there were other colleagues having lunch near me, who ...
- 13
0
votes
1
answer
4k
views
Forgot to mention subject in my letter, what should I do? [closed]
I forgot to specify subject for my letter. I already apply macros for my Outlook so I will not do this again. Is there something I should do for this sent email?
- 151
3
votes
4
answers
4k
views
Should I withdraw my job application after discovering an unacceptable mistake?
My girlfriend submitted a job application to a big international organization based in the EU. After sending in the final application, she realized she made a shameful mistake in the name of the ...
- 157
2
votes
3
answers
1k
views
I started a new job, and I hate it. Should I ask to be moved?
I'm a little lost and looking for help. I recently started a new position within my organization and I am really uncomfortable. Luckily, I work for a company that allows folks in a certain program (...
- 141
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votes
1
answer
5k
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I made a mistake in signing a birthday card
My coworker who is my mentor and we have a very formal relationship just gave me his birthday card to sign and left. I signed it whilst wishing a happy birthday to the wrong person. I then, instead of ...
- 897